


Seeing the Adventure

by sanctuary_for_all



Series: How the Light Gets In [5]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Family Feels, Family Fluff, Feels, Fixed it for you jj Abrams, Kid Fic, M/M, Stormtrooper kid fic, Which is also its own genre in stormpilot land, bless all of you, coming late to the tropes, to be more precise
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2020-04-24
Packaged: 2021-02-26 16:20:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 16,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21951166
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sanctuary_for_all/pseuds/sanctuary_for_all
Summary: As it turned out, stormtrooper defections weren't nearly as uncommon as the rank and file were led to believe.This one, however, was.(Set post "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker")
Relationships: Poe Dameron/Finn
Series: How the Light Gets In [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1575481
Comments: 131
Kudos: 511





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Title from the A.A. Milne quote "As soon as I saw you, I knew a grand adventure was about to happen."

As it turned out, stormtrooper defections weren't nearly as uncommon as the rank and file were led to believe. They'd been slipping away for years, as pairings or squads or units, faking their deaths in the middle of battles or quietly faking their deaths before fleeing into the wilds of whatever planet they'd found themselves at. No one left quite as dramatically as Finn had, and none of them stumbled into the Best Pilot in the Resistance on their way out. Their goal, however, had been the same – trying desperately to find a new life.

Finn met some of them as the Resistance traveled from planet to planet. All of them had assumed they were the only ones who'd escaped, the stories ruthlessly suppressed in a desperate attempt by the First Order to stop further defections. Most of them had no interest in fighting – a fact Finn couldn't blame them for at all – but a few helped with whatever fighting needed to be done on their planets. More were willing to help other stormtroopers make the same journey, reducing the opposition's remaining forces before a shot was even fired.

No matter how many stormtroopers defected, however, not one of them did it alone.

"I'm happy for them," Finn tried to explain to Poe one night, the lump in his throat making his voice thick. "Truly. It's the one good thing about all the unity druk they shoveled at us. Even Hell's easier when you don't have to go through it alone."

"The way you did," Poe said quietly, finishing Finn's unvoiced thought. He curved a hand around the back of Finn's neck as he leaned their foreheads together. "You can be happy for them and still wish it had been easier for you, General."

Finn closed the brief distance between them for a slow, lingering kiss. The young stormtrooper who hadn't even been liked well enough to get a nickname from his fellow troopers couldn't have even _begun_ to imagine the world General Finn Dameron lived in. "If it had, I might not have been desperate enough to be there for you when you needed me, and then I would have missed out on everything." Then he sighed, leaning his forehead back against Poe's. "But I wonder sometimes if there's another trooper out there who's alone. Who wasn't as lucky as I was."

Poe squeezed the back of his neck. "If they're out there, you'll find them."

His lips curved upward a little. Normally, Finn was the optimist in this relationship, but when it came to believing in Finn himself it was Poe all the way. "You ever wonder if you have too much faith in me?"

Poe grinned as he leaned in for another kiss. "Not even once."

000

Onderon had a long history of rebel forces, but it also had a dense jungle environment that made full-on assaults difficult for both sides. It also provided the kind of cover that made aerial attacks problematic, which meant that right now their goal was mapping. Once they knew where the troops were, and how many big guns the First Order outpost had, they could come up with a plan of attack.

That meant Finn spent more time out in the field than anyone in the Resistance command council – Poe included – was entirely comfortable with. The Force helped guide him through the jungle better than any map they could get their hands on, particularly when it came to things they needed to find. He rarely knew _what_ he was looking for, but he always knew when he got there.

Today, the drive was stronger than Finn had ever felt it. Rose was following behind silently, ready to go wherever Finn led them, but he could feel the hesitation from the Onderians who were with them. They were close enough to their goal, though, that Finn wasn't worried – he could send them back to base camp if they had to.

Before long, the Force stopped them at one particular tree that looked no different than any of the ones around it. Unsurprisingly, this was the exact moment when the Force stopped being useful. Still, Finn had enough experience with it by this point not to be thrown by that fact. The First Order didn't teach their people creativity, but he'd spent enough time with the Resistance to have plenty of opportunities to learn.

This time, the next step was simple. He gestured to one of the Onderians to give him a leg up, using it to haul himself up into the branches. If it was a transmitter he was sent here to find, staying on the ground shouting would be worse than useless. And if it _was_ a–

"Don't move." He heard the almost imperceptible hum of a blaster pistol. "I don't want to have to hurt you."

Finn went absolutely still. The voice sounded so _young_. "My name is Finn Dameron." He kept his voice utterly gentle, sure he was talking to a lost Onderian child. If she wasn't willing to trust him after an introduction, he'd send up one of the locals. "I'm a general with the Resistance. We're here to help the people of Onderon."

He heard the smallest inhale. "If you're with the Resistance, does that mean you know of FN-2187?"

Finn lost his breath. _None_ of the stormtroopers they'd run into had ever heard of him. On top of that, the _very_ small number of stormtrooper cadets they'd seen had all been with their classes, trapped on ships in tightly regimented environments. They were never sent to outposts, and they were certainly never sent out _alone_.

"He defected with a Resistance pilot, approximately a year and a half ago." The kid's voice – he was almost certain it was a girl – had developed an edge of what almost sounded like nervousness. "High command tried to say he was killed, but some of the early transmissions said to be on the lookout for him. If he was dead, they wouldn't need to find him."

Finn's chest squeezed tight. "Where's the rest of your class?" he asked quietly. "Your batch shouldn't be anywhere near ready for active service yet."

There was a heaviness to the silence that followed, then a small head poked out from the leaves above him. Her brown skin was pale, like it had been denied sun too long, but her close-cropped dark hair was already starting to grow out into the clouds it would become. Far more telling, though, was the wary hope in her eyes and the edge of stormtrooper blacks he could see at her collar.

She couldn’t have been older than 10.

His voice was rough when he spoke again. "You clearly did well on your stealth training, though. I'm sure your superior officers were impressed."

She stared at him for another few heartbeats. "FN-2187?" she asked finally, voice even less steady than before.

He nodded, heart aching. "That was my designation. Like I said, though – I'm known as Finn now."

She quickly scrambled down to the branch he was on, standing as close to military attention as you possibly could in a tree. "General Dameron, I am SR-0456. I have intel with me." She took a backpack off her back, holding it out to him. "I would like to defect to the Resistance."


	2. Chapter 2

"Do we have _any_ way of knowing what's here?" Poe pointed to two of the larger empty spaces in the map they'd been assembling a piece at a time. "Because if _I_ had big, scary, anti-aircraft artillery, that is definitely where I'd put it."

Ezari Bonteri, leader of the largest Onderon rebel group, shook her head. "We have no idea. None of my people can get anywhere near it."

Next to her, Commander D'Acy had a similarly grim look. "We've tried all of our scanners. None of them can get through."

Poe sighed, still focused on the empty spaces. "Yeah, that's _definitely_ where I'd keep my big, scary anti-aircraft artillery."

BB-8, rolling back and forth so they could look at the map from different angles, beeped in thought. _-I could go in.-_

Poe shook his head. "Not a chance, buddy. I don't send _anybody_ without backup if I can–"

The rest of the thought was cut off by Rose's voice appearing on his comms. "General Poe?"

(He and Finn hadn't officially gotten married yet – they'd been a _little_ busy – but he'd been thrilled when Finn had started using his new last name immediately. After a few confusing hours of people trying to specify _which_ General Dameron they were trying to reach, they'd landed on the current solution.)

All of Poe's attention was immediately focused on her. He tried to be there every time Finn went out on one of his Force jaunts, but when he couldn't he felt immensely better when Rose could be there. "Commander Tico? Is everything okay?"

"Everything's fine." She sounded reassuring enough, but there was an edge of something in her voice he couldn't translate. "But you're probably going to want to get down here. We're in the common room."

He had no idea what was going on, but following Rose's advice would get him the answer a lot more quickly than asking questions. With a nod to Bonteri and D'Acy, he hurried out of the room.

000

Even after all the running he'd done, Poe still stopped short after he'd only made it a few steps into the common room. Finn was sitting at one of the tables sharing a sticky biscuit with a 10-year-old girl dressed all in... yeah, those were stormtrooper blacks. They were talking, low enough that Poe couldn't make out the words, but the kid's expression was intensely studious. Finn's expression, on the other hand, was exquisitely, achingly gentle.

Poe's chest clenched tight, like a fist wrapped around his heart.

As they both stared, Rose walked over quietly to stand next to him. "The Force guided Finn straight to her," she murmured, low enough they wouldn't be overheard, either. "She said she was assigned to communications at the First Order outpost, which meant she was also responsible for all data transmissions. She brought us everything she could find, including a complete map of the outpost." She held up the backpack. "She heard about Finn's story, somehow, and it made her want to come find us."

BB-8 rolled in at that point, bumping into the back of Poe's legs while complaining loudly about how rude Poe was for slowing them down by including a set of stairs on his route here. They rolled around him, clearly prepared to continue the dressing down to Poe's face, then stopped when they realized what Poe was staring at. _-Husband Finn has found a small human-_ they beeped brightly. _-We are keeping her, correct?-_

Poe lost his breath. "BB..."

The droid, however, wasn't listening. - _I will go introduce myself. If she's anything like you and Husband-Finn, she'll need a lot of looking after_.-

Next to him, he could practically feel Rose's smile. "Yeah, that was pretty much my assessment of the situation, too."

Before Poe could even begin to respond to that, Finn and their new friend both realized BB-8 was barreling toward them beeping excitedly. The girl stiffened, like she was nervous, but a calming hand from Finn soothed her. While Finn made shushing motions at BB-8 – thank the stars that the kid didn't seem to speak binary – Poe hurried over to join them. "BB-8 can get a little sassy," he said in his most reassuring voice. "But they don't bite. I promise."

His voice jerked the girl's attention away from BB-8 (who was pointing out that they might not bite, but were _perfectly_ capable of using their lighter on frustrating masters). A heartbeat later, she jumped to her feet in an obvious parade rest that broke Poe's heart into a million pieces. "I am SR-0456, sir!" He could feel the nervousness she was doing her best not to show. "It's my fault we're in here outside of regulation–"

Finn squeezed her shoulder just as Poe cut her off. "Do you have _any_ idea how many people sneak in here to steal those sticky buns?" Poe asked with a lightness he didn't feel, sitting down on the girl's other side. "I'd do it myself, if I wasn't scared to death of Imani's wooden spoon."

She blinked, confused, then turned to find that Finn was smiling. "This is Poe," he explained softly, reaching across the empty space she'd left to squeeze Poe's hand. "I told you about him, remember?"

Her eyes widened. "Another general with the Resistance, but also the man who's going to be your husband. The pilot you escaped with." She looked at the half of a sticky bun still in her hand, then shyly held it out to him. "You should have this."

"Thank you." He carefully took the bun out of her hand, tore off a small corner, and handed it back to her. BB-8, much calmer now, beeped their approval. "I'm very pleased to meet you."

"I brought information." She leaned forward, eyes lighting up. "Will it help?"

Poe's throat went tight. "I'm sure it will." He leaned forward himself. "But that's not why I'm pleased to meet you."

Finn reached out, slowly taking the girl's hand in his. "He's also the one who gave me my name. You could have one too, if you wanted."

"Rose said you handled communications." Though what a 10-year-old was doing handling a full-grown stormtrooper's job was a question for another day. "Did you hear a name you liked? One you think you might want for yourself?"

BB-8 immediately started beeping suggestions – Rey was, unsurprisingly, the first option on the list – and even though she couldn't understand them the poor kid looked completely overwhelmed. A moment later, though, her expression cleared. "Can you name me?" she asked, the hope in her voice making Poe's eyes sting. She sat back down between them, putting the sticky bun on the table so she could take Finn's larger hand in both of her smaller ones. "You did a good job naming Finn, so you already have plenty of experience at it."

This child was going to kill him. Humbled and a little bit terrified by the responsibility – this was so much more complicated when they weren't on the run for their lives – Poe looked over at his husband-to-be. Finn's smile just widened, and he gave Poe that same small nod that always meant "you got this."

Poe made himself breathe. "How about Shara?" he asked quietly, having known it was the right answer from the moment BB-8 suggested it. "It was my mother's name."

The girl's – Shara's – smile was as bright as Finn's. "I would be honored to share your mother's name."

BB-8 beeped his approval as Finn squeezed her hands. "Well then, Shara, welcome to the Resistance."


	3. Chapter 3

Finn's throat was already tight over the fact that Poe had given Shara his mother's name. But when awe filled the little girl's face at the thought of being part of the Resistance, it very nearly made him burst into tears. "I won't let you down, sir." She straightened, practically vibrating with eagerness. "I'm experienced in communications, but you should put me wherever you need me."

Finn's chest tightened. "You don't have to call me sir," he said quietly, still holding on to her hand. He carefully tried to wrap her in what he mentally referred to as a "Force hug," projecting as much love and support as possible in her direction. He wasn't even sure she could feel it, but he had to do something. "Finn is fine."

"Thank you, sir." She winced. "Finn. I won't let you down, s— Finn. Do you need me—" She stopped herself again. "Of course you don't need me to walk you through the data. You're both superior officers."

"That sounds suspiciously like a quote." That, surprisingly, was from Poe, who before this had been clearly wrestling with the desire to go punch out all of Shara's superior officers individually. When she met his eyes, though, there was nothing but gentleness in them. "But let me tell you a secret -- sometimes superior officers don't know what they're doing, either."

When she turned back to Finn, wide-eyed at the admission, he nodded solemnly. "He's right. We need all the help we can get." He squeezed her hand, remembering how desperate he'd been to do _something_ after the Battle of Crait. Anything that would show that he could be useful. "Would you like to walk us through the data?"

BB-8 started beeping at that, offering to help, and Shara jumped again. This time, though, she let go of Finn's hand long enough to reach out and give the droid a careful pat on the head. "I'm sorry I keep doing that," she told BB-8. "I'm sure you're very nice, but there was a BB-9E unit that always rolled over cadets' toes when they were going too slow."

That kicked off an entire rant from BB-8 about his own run-in with a BB-9E, complete with beeps that would make C-3PO blush. Shara went wide-eyed, looking up at both Finn and Poe. "It sounds like your droid doesn't like the BB-9E units either."

"That's putting it mildly." Poe sighed. "See, this is why I'm worried about teaching you binary."

That made Shara's whole face light up again. "You'd be willing to teach me binary?"

Poe had to blink hard at that, eyes wet. "Of course I would, sweetheart. Anything you want."

She turned back to Finn, like she still wasn't sure she could believe such a pronouncement. Generosity wasn't something stormtroopers were taught to understand or trust, and certainly not to the degree that Poe Dameron dealt in it.

Remembering, he took her hand in his again. "Did your superior officers try to stop you from learning new things?"

Her expression turned solemn. "I never wanted to learn the _right_ new things. They didn't like the way I paid attention to things or asked questions." Her shoulders hunched. "I also have poor marksmanship scores. The trainer said I think too much before firing."

Poe looked like he was once again considering hunting her superiors down individually, but Finn's own anger was buried too deeply beneath a confusion that bordered on shock. How in the _universe_ had she managed to avoid getting her memory wiped? "And they didn't try to take you in for reconditioning?"

Shara paled. "They talked about it. But I was already better than even some of the adult stormtroopers at running the communication relays, and they were afraid if I went in for reconditioning I'd lose that, too." She took a deep breath. "They separated me from my squad so I would no longer damage team unity with my presence and sent me to the base on Onderon. The troopers there mostly ignore me." She hesitated, looking hopeful. "We don't get a lot of communications anymore, and none from high command. They might not even notice I'm gone."

Finn had no doubt they'd noticed, and were probably already looking for her. Right now, though, he was way too busy trying not to punch something _himself_ to worry about the implications of that. He thought _he'd_ been alone, but what Shara had gone through sounded extreme enough to be its own form of torture. He couldn't even _imagine_ being that isolated from such a young age. "You were incredibly brave to go through all of that alone."

She squeezed his hand like she was trying to comfort him, an earnest expression on her face. " _You_ were brave. The regular troops have to shoot people, and they get yelled at a _lot_." She turned to Poe. "You're really nice to him, right? Because he was a stormtrooper a _lot_ longer than I was, so I'm sure they must have been _really_ mean to him."

Poe swallowed, resting a hand carefully against her back. "I do my absolute best."

"He's _very_ nice to me," Finn reassured her, both of them moving closer to her without realizing it. "But we're both more worried about you."

That seemed to ease her mind a little. "You don't have to worry about me. I had so many stories to listen to." She hesitated. "A lot of the stories weren't nice, but they taught me things. And there were some good stories." She smiled up at him again, a hopeful light in her eyes. "I read the report about you and Gener-- Poe stealing the TIE fighter so many times. I never believed you were dead, no matter how times they said you were. When I started hearing about the pair of Resistance fighters who knew how to get in and out of First Order facilities, I knew it had to be you."

Finn's chest tightened. "So you came to find us?"

She shook her head. "I wanted to, but I thought you'd be too busy for someone like me. And I couldn't fly, so I couldn't leave the planet to do it." Then her shoulders squared again. "But when I heard the Resistance was on Onderon, I knew it was time for me to be brave the same way you were."

Finn couldn't help it. He let go of her only to wrap his arms around her in a careful hug, one Poe immediately joined in as well. _-Someone needs to figure out how to make me arms,-_ BB-8 complained, nuzzling closer so he could be included.

Shara froze for a heartbeat, clearly surprised, then relaxed more fully than she had since he first met her. She sniffled, wiping her eyes. "I'm sorry." Her voice was thick. "I think I must be leaking."

"That's okay." Poe's own voice was wet. "We leak a lot around here."

"We also have a lot of stories." He pulled back just enough to look into her big brown eyes. "Want us to tell you some of them? We could show you around the base while we did it."

If Shara wanted to help explain her intel, he wouldn't keep that from her. But if he could give her the chase chance to be young for a little while, that would be even better.

Her eyes went big. "Are you sure that would be okay?"

Finn and Poe smiled at each other, then back down at her. "For you? Absolutely."


	4. Chapter 4

Shara was wide-eyed the entire tour, asking dozens of questions about everyone and everything that crossed her path. It took Finn, Poe, and every other member of the Resistance in her immediate vicinity to even begin to answer them properly, but every single one of them was excited to do it. Shara soaked in every piece of information like it was the most interesting thing she'd ever heard, whether it was communication between the ground team and the Resistance members in space to the exact recipe for those sticky buns. It made _you_ feel more interesting, just talking to her.

Poe didn't really remember this period with Finn. He'd asked questions of course, ones Poe had always done his best to answer, but he'd woken up just as the attack happened and almost immediately gotten thrown into a mission. By the time they'd found each other on Crait, Finn had been so busy being a rock for both him and Rey that he hadn't ever really had the chance to let himself play catch up like this.

And yes, he wasn't 10, and between that brain of his and the Force he could pick up things so fast it was like he'd always known them. But still, Poe couldn't help but wonder how much Finn had denied himself for the sake of the war and everything else.

When Shara got distracted by BB-8 and Commander Connix showing her the planet's surface translated into data patterns, Poe leaned close to Finn's ear. "Next time we get a couple of days, we don't have to go to Yavin 4," he murmured. "We could visit whatever planet you wanted.”

Finn’s brow furrowed. “And miss the chance to eat your dad’s kak’ik?” he asked. “Besides, we’ve been to a lot of planets.”

It sounded like a pretty definitive answer, but Poe also knew that Finn still wasn’t very good at asking for things. “People were trying to kill us on most of them. That doesn’t count.”

Finn just looked at him for another moment, still confused, then something clicked and understanding suddenly filled his expression. “You don’t have to worry that I’m missing out on something,” he murmured, leaning in for a slow, sweet kiss. “My life is already plenty full, General, and you’re a big part of the reason for that.”

Poe was entirely ready to say something suitably romantic in return, but then Shara called them over to see something interesting and they got swept back into the questions and stories. He tried to mostly listen for the next stretch, watching Finn explain things to Shara and patiently listen to the questions and snatches of information she gave back in return. He did it as patiently and lovingly as he did everything else, trying to build the entire universe for this child from a borrowed underground rebel base. Watching him, Poe had the sudden sense memory of sitting on his mother’s lap in the cockpit of her A-wing, watching the sky stretch out wide and beautiful in front of him.

It looped almost immediately, but this time Poe was the one in the pilot’s seat. Shara was the one on his lap, staring at the sky with the same wide-eyed absorption she gave everything else.

He blinked to chase it away, unsettled by the all-too-familiar twist of yearning in his chest. There was no way of knowing for sure that they’d be able to keep Shara, that she’d necessarily _want_ to be kept by two men who wouldn’t be able to settle planetside for a few more years at the very least. Being with the Resistance had given Poe almost all of the very best things in his life, but he knew better than anyone how hard it was. It wasn’t a choice everyone would make. 

And Shara deserved all the choices life could give her. Even if that meant—

“General Poe?” The sound of Shara’s hesitant voice and a gentle tug on his hand brought Poe back into the moment. Shara was staring up at him with big worried eyes, and he could practically feel Finn give him a quieter version of the same expression. “Is something wrong? You looked distressed.”

BB-8, as always, was much more direct. _-We were having a good day, and now you’re making them both sad. Either tell me something I need to go electrocute, or stop it.-_

Poe instantly felt guilty. “No, I’m okay.” He shot Finn an apologetic look as he squeezed his hand, trying not to think about how hard it would hit Finn if they didn’t get to keep her, then crouched down in front of Shara. “I just haven’t been in the sky for awhile. Pilots get a little crazy when they can’t fly.”

_-You’re crazy no matter how recently you’ve flown,-_ BB-8 cut in, but Poe could tell from the tone of the beeps that the little droid was mollified by the attempt. 

Shara, big-hearted as she was, instantly looked distressed. “You can’t fly because of the First Order base.” Expression turning firm, she started tugging on Finn and Poe. “We should go so I can show you all my intel. Once you figure out how to shut down the base, you can fly again.”

Kriffing Hutt-spawn, that wasn’t what he’d meant to have happen at _all_. “Shara, it’s okay.” He got down on his knees, wrapping her hand in both of his. “As long as you’re safe, as long as Finn is safe, I would be okay with never flying again. People are more important.” He swallowed. “You are more important.”

She shook her head. “You don’t even know how useful I am yet.”

“Usefulness doesn’t matter.” Finn knelt down next to Poe. His gaze was locked with Shara’s, steady and sure in a way nothing else in the universe ever was. “I understand wanting to be useful, and if it helps you I want to give you as many opportunities as I can to make sure you feel that way. But you don’t _have_ to be useful to have a place here, or…” His voice caught a little, but he took a deep breath and pushed ahead. “…or anyplace else, if you don’t want to. Just being who you are is enough, even if you don’t know exactly who that is yet.”

_-Husband-Finn caused all kinds of trouble when I first met him, and he’s one of my favorite humans now,-_ BB-8 beeped reassuringly. _-You’ve already had a much better start than he did.-_

She looked back and forth between them, searching their faces as if hunting for some key that would help her understand what they were trying to tell her. Finally, she took a deep breath, mimicking Finn’s movements in a way she probably didn’t even consciously realize she was doing. “Even if I don’t have to be useful, I want to be.” She squared her shoulders again, looking so brave that Poe came close to getting teary again. “If people are important, I want to be the kind of person who helps them.”

Finn pulled her into a hug, Poe wrapping his arms around both of them, and this time she let herself cling a little. Then they pulled back, and Finn and Poe both stood. “Then let’s go look at that intel you brought us,” Finn said quietly.

Together, the four of them made their way to the control room.


	5. Chapter 5

Shara stood stormtrooper straight while Rose pulled up the most relevant bits of intel, the solemnly focused expression on her face that didn’t quite hide the emotion in her eyes. Finn wanted t squeeze her shoulder, but he knew better than anyone that a clapped hand on the shoulder could have any number of potentially terrifying meanings for a stormtrooper cadet. So he just moved closer to her, Poe echoing the gesture on the other side, and his chest clenched when she leaned back into them both a little. BB-8 rolled closer as well, radiating supportiveness as much as possible.

Rose turned then, smiling at Shara with a gentle professionalism that was exactly the right balance to take. “Can you walk us through the map of the base?” She pulled up the relevant file. “Anything you think we might miss just by looking at it.”

Shara took a deep breath. “You found the security rotation schedule, right?”

Rose nodded. “We just haven’t incorporated it yet.”

Shara nodded in return, her gaze flickering over the map. Finn could pick out a lot of the basics himself – he’d used the fact that most First Order facilities were the same more than once on a mission – but he could only imagine what Shara was thinking right now. She knew she was helping to take down the First Order, but these were the people she saw every day. That was never easy, no matter what life with them had been like.

Then she stepped forward, pointing to the four dark spots at the corners of the map. “Those are laser canons retrofitted off of starships. Troopers complain all the time that the guns must not like being land-bound, because they require maintenance pretty regularly. They make sure that at least three of them are always working at one time, though, as a defense against any spacecraft.” She glanced over at Poe. “Sorry.”

Poe’s expression was solemn, but his eyes were warm. “Not your fault, sweetheart.”

“Is there any way of telling which one isn’t working at the moment?” Finn asked quietly.

She glanced back at him. “Maintenance reports, but the ones I grabbed won’t be current enough for you to be able to trust them. Officers are constantly on the repair crews to get those fixed, especially when there’s a relay problem.”

Attention lit Rose’s eyes. “Relay problem?”

Shara paused, clearly trying to remember. “They never really talked about the problem in detail where I could hear it, but I do know that crews always said the base’s electrical system didn’t like the planet’s humidity.” She shot Rose a worried look. “I’m sorry I don’t know more, but I’m sure you can find details in the old maintenance reports.”

Rose nodded, one professional to another. “I’ll look into it.”

Shara nodded back, shoulders relaxing a little, then turned back to the map. “The cameras aren’t as good by this entrance, which means there are a lot of blind spots the other stormtroopers use to do stuff they don’t want the officers knowing about. There’s a doorway here, but you can’t go too far out or you’ll hit the security perimeter. Breaching that without authorization is an immediate death sentence.”

She said it as calmly as she’d said everything else, but her fingers twitched a little in a way that Finn recognized all too clearly. It was Poe, however, that asked the most immediately relevant question. “How did you make it past the perimeter?” he asked quietly.

Everyone was surprised when she looked faintly embarrassed. “One of the perimeter sensors is blocked by a tree.” She pointed to a spot about a quarter of the way down the base’s west side. “The resulting hole isn’t big enough for a full-sized stormtrooper to get through, and with all the work keeping the guns online I think they just never got around to fixing it.” For the first time, her expression turned distance. “Sometimes I’d hack into the security feed and just stare at it.”

Finn, Poe, and Rose all met each other’s eyes. If it was on the security cameras, it was entirely possible that a stormtrooper had sat there and just watched Shara go without raising an alarm. “What about the other stormtroopers stationed there?” Finn asked. “Do you think there are any more who might be willing to defect?”

She looked struck by that, like the thought had never occurred to her. “And join the Resistance?”

“They wouldn’t have to.” Poe crouched down so he could look Shara directly in the eye. “All we’d ask is that they walk off the base without firing a shot at any of our people. If they’d be willing to get out early, so much the better.”

She looked overwhelmed by the idea, and after a few moments gave Poe a helpless look. “I don’t know. Maybe?”

He nodded, smiling a little. “We’ll look into it, then.” He straightened. “We don’t want to fight anybody we don’t have to.”

Finn nodded, mind whirling with potential ways to reach out without alerting loyalists to a potential raid. He’d made his peace with shooting stormtroopers, especially the ones who were trying to kill him. But if they were taking advantage of the blind spots so obviously, it was clear at least some of the conditioning had broken down. And if someone there really had let Shara escape…

_-If we need to get in, I could fit into the space-_ BB-8 added, sounding like he was continuing a discussion Finn hadn’t been a part of. Given previous discussions with BB-8, it probably involved charging into danger single-handedly. _–I’m even smaller than Small Friend-Shara.-_

Poe sighed. “We’ll talk about this later, BB-8.”

Shara looked interested. “What did he say? I heard the beep pattern you said meant my name.”

Poe scrubbed a hand over his face. “Don’t worry about it. I love that droid, but they’re an even bigger troublemaker than I am.”

_-I don’t think it’s possible to be a bigger troublemaker than you are_ ,- BB-8 shot back. _–Especially when I’m so much physically smaller.-_

Shara stared at BB-8, lips slowly curving upward a little. “He’s being insubordinate, isn’t he?” She looked back and forth between them, clearly delighted by the thought. “Saying things he’s not supposed to be saying.”

Finn let himself smile. “Not about you, though. He likes you.”

_-Of course I do_.- BB-8 responded instantly. _–I also like Master Poe and Husband-Finn, but sometimes they say stupid things.-_

Poe turned to Shara, holding out a hand as if he was physically trying to block BB-8. “When you do figure out everything BB-8 is saying, Shara, I want you to ignore _all_ of it. BB-8 is a terrible example and should absolutely not be followed.”

Shara’s smile had widened into a grin. “But you like the droid anyway.” Still, she turned to BB-8 and wagged a finger at them. “Be nice to Finn and Poe. They have very stressful lives, and I just brought them a lot of new things to worry about.”

_-I have to worry about them, which means I have a lot more to worry about than they do.-_ BB-8 argued, circling around her legs. _–I’m amazed they didn’t die when I was off helping Friend-Rey.-_

“He thinks we can take it,” Finn translated, his own smile widening. He turned to Rose. “You need anything else?”

Rose looked thoughtful. “I’ll need to talk to you and Poe later, of course, but I have a few ideas I want to work through first.” She nodded at Shara. “Thank you for your help. Can I ask for your help again if I need it?”

Shara nodded. “Of course.” Then she turned back to Finn and Poe, expression hopeful. “Can we go learn more binary?”

Poe groaned theatrically enough to make both Finn and Shara laugh.


	6. Chapter 6

Afterward, they took her to dinner. (Technically, Poe and Finn took her to dinner. BB-8 had never been even slightly interested in the things humans put into their mouths – though they were _perfectly_ capable of making jokes about it, depending on the circumstances – and so took the opportunity to check in with R2-D2 up on the cruiser.)

The meal options were an even less exciting than they used to be at the Resistance base, since the rebels here didn't have any chance for off-world food. But the planet had a decent amount of fruit and vegetables, and the woman in charge of the food stores knew a dozen different things to do with each and every one of them. She also ruled the tiny makeshift kitchen with an iron fist, but she'd already developed a soft spot for Shara and made her a relatively princely meal.

Shara stared at it, wide-eyed. "What if I'm not able to eat all of it?" she asked, looking back and forth between Poe and Finn for some kind of reassurance. "I don't want Dearra to think I didn't like the food she made me."

"I'll explain to her that you're not used to eating this much food," Finn said gently. "After years of ration bars, your stomach isn't very big."

"And some of it you can save," Poe added, gathering up the dried fruit bites, the whole Kar fruit, and the slice of bread into a napkin. "Sneaking midnight snacks out of the kitchen is one of the best parts of being a kid."

Afterward, she carefully went around the tray and tasted everything on it. She liked a lot of it, especially the soup, and kept stealing little bites of the sticky bun in between all of it. She refused to admit that she actually _disliked_ any of it, but there were a few things where she couldn't stop herself from making a face at the first bite. When that happened, either Poe or Finn would just slip the food off her tray and add it to one of theirs.

Of course, some of that always happened between Finn and Poe anyway. Finn only ever ate about half of his soup before he passed it over to Poe, while Poe only ever ate a few bites of sticky bun before passing his over to Finn. That was even more important today, since Finn had been slipping most of his to Shara.

(Okay, so he slipped her part of his, too. From the approving foot stroke Finn gave him, he was pretty sure he was forgiven.)

Eventually, Shara slowed down enough that she started looking vaguely distressed at the food that was still left. Deciding that some distraction was needed, Poe leaned forward with a smile while Finn started slipping some of the leftovers off her tray. "So, see any jobs you liked during the tour? Something you think you might want to do when you grow up?"

Her brow furrowed in thought. "I'm good at communications, and I have some experience with other technological systems."

"It can be something you're good at, but it doesn't have to be," Poe said encouragingly, vaguely guilty that Finn had never had the chance to explore. Yes, he'd proven to be good at pretty much everything, but he'd had to hit the ground running and stay that way. Poe didn't know what he would have done without him, but it wasn't fair that Finn hadn't had much of a choice. "It can be anything that interests you, or something you think you maybe want to learn how to do."

Shara considered this for another long moment, expression getting a little overwhelmed, then turned to Finn. "How did you decide what you wanted to do?"

Finn smiled a little, like he'd been expecting the question. "I didn't really pick what I wanted to do so much as who I wanted to be with. Then I just did whatever I had to do to stick as close to them as possible."

Poe's brow lowered. "You believed in the Resistance as much as any of us. More, even."

"I did and do believe in everything we're doing, but it took me a little while to figure that out." He focused on Shara, expression gentle. "I was still in survival mode, and that was okay."

He understood where Finn was going with this, but Poe wasn't comfortable with how short Finn was selling himself. "You took down Starkiller Base to save Rey. That was more than just survival mode."

"That was _you_?" Shara's expression was pure awe. "Most of the transmissions we got after that talked about it being General Hux's failure, not that the traitor had done it."

"I was only one of a whole group of very brave people who did it, including this guy." He tilted his head toward Poe. "And after I got hurt during that mission, I tried to run again."

"Once again, to save Rey." They'd had this discussion before, soon after it happened, but it was clear that they needed to have it again. "And almost immediately after that, you volunteered for a _really_ dangerous mission. One _you_ came up with in the first place."

"Well, yeah." Finn's expression was soft, but also suggested that Poe was missing something obvious. "I knew I could never get you to run, and it was the only thing I could think of that might save you _and_ Rey."

Poe's throat tightened, too much emotion rising up all at once for his voice to have a chance. Finn gently stroked the side of his foot against Poe's ankle in acknowledgement, then turned to Shara. "I ended up really believing in how important the Resistance was, but it took awhile. And even then, my biggest priority was still being there for Poe and Rey."

Shara looked like she was carefully turning each and every word over in her head. "So you picked people, not a set of duties," she said finally. "Which meant that your duties were to help them and keep them safe."

"Exactly." Finn's smile radiated warmth. "People figure out what they want their life to look like in all kinds of different ways."

Shara nodded thoughtfully, then turned to Poe. "How did you figure out what you wanted your life to look like?"

"I saw my mom fly, and I knew ever since I was a little kid that I wanted to do the same thing." He tried to phrase it in a way Shara would find the most helpful. "It just took me a little while to find a group of people who I trusted enough to keep flying for them."

He'd started flying for the New Republic, but eventually their policy of non-involvement and his views about right and wrong had crashed into each other. He'd known he wanted to fly with the Resistance, but even with his parents' work with the Rebellion it had taken him a little while to figure out how to get there.

She seemed to be giving his words just as much weight as she had Poe's. "So you look at what other people are doing, and you see if you want to do the same thing. And whatever you do, make sure you do it for someone you trust."

"You're two for two." He smiled at her. "But really, that's just advice. Like Finn said, everyone has their own way of doing things."

"It feels like good advice. Thank you. Both of you." Slowly, her expression eased, and she gave him a brightly enquiring look. "Would you like the rest of my soup, Poe? I don't have any more room in my stomach."

"Why thank you, my lady." He gave her an exaggerated wink as they exchanged bowls, making her smile widen. "I would be _ever_ so grateful."


	7. Chapter 7

BB-8 came back after dinner, and Finn and Poe took turns checking on the responsibilities they'd been avoiding over the last several hours. Finn was incredibly touched when they both discovered that Rose, Beaumont and everyone else had covered them both for the rest of the night. He tried to protest – he'd already stolen so much time from them – but everyone was full of smiling encouragement to go spend more time with Shara.

So they all squeezed together into his and Poe's sleeping nook while BB-8 projected "Luke Skywalker and the Dragons of Tatooine." It was a holodrama Poe had watched when he was a little kid, and he remembered every word of his dad's color commentary about certain scenes. It was hardly the best holodrama out there, but it was always good for a laugh. Shara seemed to feel the same way, and though she asked several questions she spent most of the time giggling.

Soon after that finished, it was time for bed. The base was on a rotating sleep schedule, but there was enough good leadership that Finn and Poe let themselves take the same one. Privacy was almost non-existent, but the chance to wrap up in each other was a comfort even when sleep wasn't going to happen.

What was comforting, however, was different for everyone. So, as BB-8 rolled off to plug himself in to a recharger, Finn and Poe both showed her both their nook and the larger storeroom where rows of cots had been set up. "You can stay with us, or you can choose any of the empty cots and have your own space. Whichever you want."

Shara studied the rows of cots as carefully as she had the map, and Finn resisted the urge to read anything more complicated than concentration on her face. She'd been even more isolated than most stormtroopers, as far as he'd been able to gather, which meant that squishing into a tight bed would probably be even more jarring. A space of her own, close to other people, would be the best compromise. Besides, they were just down the corridor.

And, if she wanted to go somewhere else when all of this was done, this would probably be pretty good practice at letting her go.

Finally, she turned back to them both with a serious look. "I'll be fine in here." She let out a breath, a hint of fragility slipping out. "Can you please come get me when you wake up again? I don't want to miss anything."

Finn squeezed her shoulder. "The very first thing."

Then it was back to their own sleeping nook, where they kicked off their boots and dropped into bed almost fully clothed. They fitted themselves into a spoon position, Poe with his back against the wall and Finn tucked up next to him. Finn tucked the blanket up around them – it was the job of whoever was the little spoon – and closed his eyes.

A few minutes later, he opened them again. "Am I doing this right?" he sighed, staring into the darkened corridor. He rubbed a thumb over the circle of Shara's wedding ring as it pressed through his shirt, the one Poe had worn around his neck for years before giving it to Finn. "Am I making things better, or am I just making her more confused?"

"I don't know if enough people have done this for there to be a right and wrong answer," Poe said quietly, sounding just as awake. He tightened his arms around Finn. "But if there's anyone I would trust with a little kid who's trying to figure out how to not be a stormtrooper anymore, it's you."

He squeezed his eyes shut, emotion rising up in his throat. "If... if she decides she wants to stay with us... can we..."

"Of course." Poe's own voice was thick as he pressed a kiss against the back of Finn's neck. "I wanted her to be ours from the first moment I saw you with her."

The image made his heart hurt in the best way, but he knew it wasn't something they could be sure of. "If," he whispered.

Poe's arms tightened around him. "If."

Finn didn't know when he drifted off. He must have, though, because the sense of someone moving nearby woke him up. He opened his eyes, not sure why something that small had woken him up – the base didn't shut down just because he did – when he realized there was something resting against his arm. He shifted, and even though it pulled away quickly he felt the brush of Shara's short, cloud-like hair.

Finn lost his breath. "Hey." He reached out, catching her hand. "What happened? Is everything okay?"

"I'm fine. Everything's fine." She sounded nervous, or guilty, and Finn squeezed her hand in the hope that she'd find it comforting. "I'm sorry to–"

"Shara." He kept his voice gentle. "Please. Just tell me what happened. Did someone say something? Or do something?"

"No, nothing like that. Everyone was fine." She swallowed. "I just... I don't want to bother you. I can just sleep down here curled up, and as long as I'm close to you both I think..."

She swallowed again, but Finn already knew the rest of the sentence. "I have nightmares, too," he said quietly, aching for her. "They're easier to deal with when I'm not alone."

Shara sagged in relief. "So it's okay if I sleep down here?"

He squeezed her hand again. "There's room up here, too."

She went still. "I don't want to be a bother," she whispered.

Before Finn could draw in the breath to reassure her, he felt Poe's arm reach out and lift up the blanket. Finn's lips curved upward. "We took a vote. You're not a bother."

Gingerly, she crawled into bed in the position of smallest spoon. After a few moments, he felt her relax into the thin mattress. "Thank you," she whispered.

He pressed a gentle kiss against her hair. "Any time."

Sleep was deeper after that, but it still didn't last forever. The next time he woke up was a little before dawn, a quick jerk into consciousness that either came from an alarm or the Force screaming in your ear. He lay there for a moment in the darkness, trying to realize exactly what the Force was saying, when he realized he had to go outside _now._

He was carefully trying to get out of bed without waking anyone when he felt Poe move behind him. "What is it?" Poe asked quietly. "The Force alarm go off in your head?"

Finn nodded, carefully moving over Shara to get to his feet. "I have to get outside. Not sure why yet."

Poe moved to follow the same path. "I'll back you up. Just let me–"

Finn stopped him with a hand on his arm. "I need you here," he whispered. "Please. I don't want Shara waking up alone."

He tensed, clearly ready to argue, then let out a frustrated breath. "I don't know how much of a comfort I'm going to be if she wakes up and you're not there."

Finn moved his hand so it cradled the curve of Poe's jaw. "I know for a _fact_ that there is nothing more comforting to a newly escaped stormtrooper than Poe Dameron."

Poe sighed. "See if Rose will go with you," he whispered insistently. "I don't want you out there alone."

Finn leaned close for a quick kiss. "Of course." Then he pulled away, touching Shara's shoulder so lightly there was no risk of waking her up. "I'll be back before you know it."

Then he left to go find Rose and figure out what the Force wanted from him.


	8. Chapter 8

Poe laid down in the spot Finn had left, carefully putting his arm around Shara the same way Finn had. He didn't bother trying to go back to sleep, knowing it wouldn't work, but he also knew how comforting another person could be when the nights were bad. Whatever had chased her out of bed earlier, he didn't want it to happen again.

It wasn't long before she woke up anyway, though his memory of the early days with Finn suggested that was probably more habit than anything he'd done wrong. She jerked awake, like she could hear an alarm inside her head, and he could practically feel her take a few seconds to process where she was. She shifted around to look at him, the sheer relief in her eyes enough to break his heart. "I'm really here," she whispered.

Poe gave her a gentle squeeze, voice thick. "Yeah, you are."

A heartbeat later, it sank in that someone was missing. "Where's Finn?" She immediately sat up, a move Poe echoed. Worry sparked in her eyes. "Is everything okay?"

"Everything's fine." Poe willed the words to be true as he rubbed a soothing hand along Shara's back. "Finn just had to go check on some—"

Before he could even finish the sentence, BB-8 came barreling down the corridor beeping frantically that Rose was on the comms and he needed to patch Poe and Shara into the conversation _now_. They were beeping too fast for Shara to make out even individual words, but the urgency was obvious to everyone. "Something happened to— something happened, didn't it?" Her fingers curled in Poe's shirt. "Please. I need to know what BB-8 is saying, no matter how bad it is."

"Finn's okay." He wrapped an arm around her, understanding exactly why she'd edited herself. His brain refused to contemplate the possibility of Finn dying, too. "BB-8 would have led with that if he wasn't. Rose just wants us to hear about something that's happening."

Hear and, apparently, see. BB-8 projected a holo into the space in front of them, and Poe went still at the sight of the stormtrooper with his hands raised. He could see a shoulder, arm and blaster at the edge of the shot that he knew belonged to Finn, and another set on the opposite side he didn't immediately recognize. Rose, presumably, was the one recording.

"I'm not in the habit of helping stormtroopers complete their missions." That was Finn, his voice a mask.

The stormtrooper leaned forward. "I'm just asking for visual confirmation." He flinched back as Finn's finger moved meaningfully closer to the trigger. "A young humanoid female. Answers to SR-0456."

Next to him, Shara froze. "They're hunting me," she whispered.

Poe tightened his arm around her. "They won't get to you."

There was series of beeps and clicks, unrecognizable enough coming from a human throat that it took Poe a second to realize that Rose was actually speaking binary to BB-8. An instant later, BB-8 translated. - _Friend-Rose wants to know whether Small Friend-Shara recognizes the prisoner's voice_ ,- they said. - _Is he designated friend, enemy, or unimportant?_

When Poe translated, Shara made herself breathe past her panic to focus on the man's voice. After a moment, she looked up at Poe. "I think that's probably Scans," she said quietly. "I don't know if he was a friend, but he probably could have told the officers about my research and never did. He even answered a question I had once."

BB-8 passed along the message, and Rose once again used binary to do the same to Finn. The stormtrooper's helmet moved back and forth between them, like he was trying to translate, but Finn said that the First Order actually discouraged rank-and-file stormtroopers from learning binary. Even if this guy was the exception, hardly anyone bothered learning it well enough to have a detailed conversation.

More proof, in Poe's opinion, that Rose was smarter than the rest of them combined.

"And if we did see her?" Finn asked the stormtrooper, voice still dangerously even. "We're not telling you what direction she went."

"It doesn't matter." Scans had sagged in visible relief at the question. "Even if you've got her in a cell, it's better than what Lieutenant Gage would do to her."

The fact that Shara went rigid again told Poe everything he needed to know about this Gage guy. From the way Finn's voice darkened, he could paint a pretty clear mental picture as well. "Why do you care? You're looking for her to bring her back to Gage."

"No, Squeak and I joined the search party so the rest of them _wouldn't_ find her." He leaned forward, urgent. "The kid needed to go. This life was killing her."

"It's killing you, too," Finn said calmly.

"Not as bad. And kark, I'm used to it. But her..." His hands moved, hesitated, then pulled off his helmet. The Man underneath looked like he was maybe 10 years older than Poe, his face craggy and his hair close cropped, but there was an earnestness in his eyes that made him look almost young for a moment. "She's a good kid. So keep her wherever you have her until you're sure she's not a plant out spy or anything like that, then let her go off and have a real life."

Poe looked over at Shara, who was staring at the holo in a kind of confused shock that looked like it could crack at any moment. When he gave her another squeeze, she made a little broken sound and curved her body towards his. She pressed her face against his shoulder, sliding her arms around his middle.

Throat tight, he pressed a kiss against her hair and pulled her into a full hug. "I guess you had more friends than you realized," he murmured. In response, she just tightened her arms around him.

On the other side of the holo, Scans looked suddenly awkward. "Well, I've said my piece." He put the helmet back on. "Now, they'll know I've been captured, so either do it officially or get out of here now. I'll shoot my blaster into the trees a few times so it'll read right, and if you're willing to do the same that would help sell it for both of us."

Finn lowered his blaster, stopping Poe's heart even though he knew he was right. "Have you ever wanted a real life for yourself?"

Scans went absolutely still for a few heartbeats. "The Resistance uses promises of defection as a trap," he said quietly. "You killed the traitor when he came to you."

Poe had heard that story from some of the former stormtroopers they'd talked to, but Shara clearly hadn't. She stiffened, lifting her head without letting go of him. "How dare the officers tell them _that_?" she whispered. "All the reports about him still being hunted were meant for the officers. They _knew_ he was still alive. The stormtroopers were supposed to be _looking_ for him!"

"Whoever was in charge knew they probably wouldn't find Finn here, and they couldn't risk losing troopers wanting to go look for the Resistance," he explained. "Especially when they still had the Onderonian rebels to deal with."

On the other side of the holo, Finn laughed. "Yeah, I've heard that story before, too. I think they did it to stop people wondering how the Resistance suddenly knew so much about how First Order ships and bases were set up. Not to mention Starkiller."

Scans jerked in surprise. "You spoke to the traitor? He gave you intel?"

"Not exactly." He could hear the smile in Finn's voice as he held out his hand. "FN-2187, at your service."

The stormtrooper just stared. "I don't believe you."

"You sand down the top edges of your shoulder plates yet?" Finn asked easily. "Some troopers think it's pointless, but it gives you a little more mobility."

The staring continued. "There might be others," he said finally, voice unsteady. "Probably."

"If you'd be willing, now would be a good time to go back and find that out," Finn said gently. "If you're worried about all of you making it off base, we might have a way to help with that."

Scans waited another heartbeat, then nodded. "I'll be ready." He took a step back, firing the blaster in the empty space to Finn's left. As he turned to run, Finn did the same to Scans' right.

That was where the holo cut off. - _Friend Rose says thank you to Small Friend Shara, and that they're coming back with the full report.-_

Poe passed on the translation. "They'll want us there," he said quietly. "I assume your okay with that."

Shara nodded. "I want to help." She looked thoughtful. "There probably will be more people. Not to be brave, but most of the troopers don't like the officers much. If they have a chance, I don't think they'd want to die for them."

"I think you're right." Which meant that they'd probably have people on the inside, which made an aerial attack both too dangerous and possibly unnecessary.

Things had just gotten more complicated, but also possibly more interesting.

"Come on." He stood up, holding out a hand to Shara. "Let's go meet them at the entrance."


	9. Chapter 9

Poe, BB-8, and Shara met them at the entrance, with Shara throwing her arms around him like she hadn't seen him in a year. Poe restrained himself to a shoulder squeeze and a look, so full of love, relief, and determination to do this together that it was better than a hug from most people. Finn was careful to return all of the affection and love he was given, not wanting either of them to doubt that he loved them just as much.

They all went together with Rose to the main control room, where the rest of the base's command team had been called as well. Rose had wrestled the rest of Shara's intel into submission the night before, and with the news about the possible stormtrooper defections he knew they were close to a finalized plan. He'd be able to follow through on his implicit promise to Scans sooner rather than later.

Rose led the meeting, Beaumont off to the side in his usual position as her shadow. "Our assumption up to this point was that we were working toward an aerial assault, but recent events have given us a detailed knowledge of both the facility's inner workings and the possibility of help from the inside. Both of those would be put to better use in an infiltration attack."

Ezari Bonteri lowered her brow. "I'm not doubting our intel," she gave a respectful nod to Shara, "but how sure are we about the help. If they were serious about defecting, wouldn't they have left with our new friend?"

Shara looked up at both Finn and Poe for confirmation that she could speak, then turned to Ezari. "The grown-up troopers couldn't leave the same way I did, which meant they had even less of a chance of making it out. If they knew the outer perimeter would be down, they would go."

"Which is why we're going to get the outer perimeter down." Rose turned back to the large onscreen map of the First Order facility. "The shutoff for the outer perimeter barrier is in the control room, but that's both in the center of the base and constantly staffed." She added the moving dots that showed the simulated security rotations. "But the maintenance log shows that the power to the barrier can also be shut off here." She gestured to the spot.

BB-8 rolled forward. - _I'll do it. I can make it through Small Friend-Shara's escape hatch and get to the panel without anyone seeing.-_

Finn could feel Poe tensing to argue, but Rose beat him to it. "Normally, I would agree that you could handle this on your own, but this is actually a ceiling access panel." She pointed to the spot. "Since the base is only one floor, you'd have to get to the roof and go down."

"Unless he had a human backing him up," Poe added. "I could—"

He stopped when Shara tugged on his hand. "I'm sorry, but you won't fit through the gap I used. And BB-8 definitely won't." BB-8 immediately started into an argument that had something to do with their torch, but she held up a hand to cut them off before they got very far. "I don't know what you're saying, but if it's something to do with cutting the trees to make the hole bigger, I'll remind you they're not as wide as you think. If you make even one of them snap and fall, we'll lose the hole completely."

BB-8 subsided into a grumble about annoying mind readers he happened to know while Ezari stepped forward. "If trees are what made the gap in the barrier, why can't we make our own?"

Shara shook her head again. "It would only work if you had something set up while the energy barrier was being reset. Once it has its borders established, anything that hits the barrier just bounces off in a burst of energy." She looked up at Finn and Poe again, then swallowed. "If you need someone to go through the barrier, they have to be able to use the space that's already there."

Finn's stomach dropped as he realized what she was saying. "You think you should be the one to go in. Alone."

"You don't have to do this." Poe's voice was urgent. "We can find another way."

- _I'll find a way in_ ,- BB-8 added. - _I'll dig if I have to_.-

Everyone else fell silent, as if trying to give them as much privacy as possible. Shara held tight to both their hands, expression heartbreakingly solemn as she looked at Finn. "You said that you picked people, and decided your duties based on what would help keep them safe." She looked back and forth between them, voice wavering with emotion. "If I get to have people, I pick you and Poe. Getting the energy barrier down will help keep you both safe, which means it's my duty."

She focused specifically on Poe. "And you said to see if there's anyone you want to be like, and to only do things for people you trust. I’ve known I wanted to be like Finn for a long time, and now I know I want to be like you, too. This is exactly what both of you would do, and…” She took a deep breath, looking back and forth between them again. “…and I’m not even scared to do it, because I’d trust you both with my life.”

Poe met Finn’s eyes, radiating the same anguish that felt like it was threatening to drown Finn from the inside out. He didn’t know if it was the Force, or just how well he knew Poe’s face, but he could also see that Poe knew just as well as he did that this was an offer from the deepest part of Shara’s heart. Turn it down, and they’d snuff her light before it really had a chance to grow.

Finn swallowed, crouching down in front of her. “You’re right. We really, really hate that fact, but you’re right.” He took Shara’s face in his hands, pressing a kiss against her forehead. She made a small sound Finn could feel in his own throat. “But you also have to let us figure out how to keep you as safe as possible while you do this.” He tried to smile, even though his eyes were wet. “The first rule of family is that no one goes in without backup.”

“We need a distraction.” Poe turned to Rose. “As far away from Shara’s entry point as possible. Finn and I will do it.”

“That’s exactly what I was thinking, actually.” Rose’s voice was quietly matter-of-fact, which at the moment was far more of a kindness than sympathy would have been. “From the reaction we got from our new friend, it’s pretty clear that at least the stormtroopers on this base were all told that the Resistance killed FN-2187 once he escaped the First Order. If Finn were to announce dramatically that _he_ was FN-2187, and convince them of that as quickly as he did Scans, then a lot of people on that base are going to be _very_ interested in him. Either to follow his lead, or to…” She stopped, wincing slightly.

“Shoot me,” Finn finished, far less bothered by the prospect than all the other parts of this. He nodded. “Sounds like a plan.”

“You’ll be with him, right?” Shara turned to Poe, everything about her urgent. “You need to help keep him safe.”

 _-And I’ll be there to keep them both safe_ ,- BB-8 added. – _I’m better at it than either of them_.-

“You are doing a _bang_ up job being like Finn,” Poe breathed, as if Poe himself wasn’t at _least_ this heroically self-sacrificial. Still, he gave Shara a solemn nod. “I will absolutely be there to help keep him safe,” he promised her, making Finn’s chest hurt. “And we will get in there to help keep _you_ safe just as soon as we can.”

 _-We’ll have Small Friend-Shara wear a tracker,-_ BB-8 added. _–That way, I’ll be able to find her no matter where she is.-_

“As soon as the barrier’s down, the rest of us will storm the base.” Ezari nodded. “You both can go straight to her, while the rest of us take down the base itself. If any stormtroopers do decide they want to defect, they can join us.” She paused, smiling a dangerous smile. “I’m sure they’ll have some aggression they want to get out.”

“So,” Rose let out a breath. “It sounds like we have a plan.”


	10. Chapter 10

In the old days, mission prep had always gone far too slowly for Poe. He never cut corners, knowing it would risk lives, but he'd always wanted to be out there doing what needed to be done. There was always something you couldn't plan for, no matter how much prep work you did, and there was a part of him that had always itched to charge out there and face it head on.

Now, though, he would have given nearly anything to put off the mission just a little bit longer. The necessary prep work for the assault on the First Order base seemed to happen in the blink of an eye, and before he knew it he and Finn were putting a tracker on Shara and trying not to cry. BB-8 was circling around all three of them, beeping the same sort of distress that Poe felt.

"We will come find you as _soon_ as we can, okay?" Poe said, a mantra he found himself repeating about himself repeating about once a minute. He knew it was for himself as much or more as it was for her, but he couldn't seem to make himself stop. "As soon as we breach the walls, we'll be right there."

"And even then, BB-8 will probably beat us to you," Finn said, also not the first time he'd said that. BB-8 beeped his vehement agreement, the same way he did every time Finn said that. "And I have no doubt that you're good with a blaster, but if you end up needing to take out a stormtrooper for any reason, let BB-8 do it. They enjoy electrocuting people."

 _Only when they deserve it_ , BB-8 added. _Anyone who tried to hurt Small Friend Shara would most definitely deserve it_.

"Don't worry so much about me that you three don't take care of each other, too," Shara said anxiously, a refrain she'd repeated as many times as Poe and Finn had repeated theirs. "I'll be fine, because I'm small and can stay out of the way. But Finn is going to be drawing everyone's attention on purpose, and we all know Poe's going to be so busy protecting Finn that he's not going to pay enough attention to protecting himself, and BB-8—"

"We'll take care of each other." There was an ache in Finn's voice as he took Shara's face in his hands, enough to make Poe's own chest hurt. "I promise you, Shara. But you need to make sure you come back so we can all take care of each other."

Shara's eyes filled. "I've heard..." Her voice wavered and broke, and she had to swallow before she could risk trying again. "One of the other stormtroopers once talked about this thing called parents..."

Now it was Finn's eyes that filled. "Of course." His voice was thick with everything he was feeling. "If that's what you want, we'd be _honored_."

She turned to Poe, clutching at him. "Is that okay? Because you're so _nice_ , but I know it's a lot to have to deal with two--"

Poe cut her off when he pulled her into his arms, his heart so full he was amazed it still fit into his chest. "You and Finn are the greatest things in my life," he whispered, his own eyes wet. Finn came closer, completing the hug, and Poe shifted his grip only enough to hold onto him as well. "It would kill me to lose either one of you."

"You won't lose either one of us," Finn murmured, holding on just as tightly. "This family doesn't let go of each other that easily."

Shara, holding onto them both as if she could save them from falling, started sobbing openly. Poe and Finn weren't too far behind her.

000

But in a battle, there was only so much time for tears. BB-8 stood guard until they managed to pull themselves together, and soon they were swept into the action.

Their part of the mission required stealth, so they went the last part of the distance on foot. Shara had to break off way too early, but he and Finn send her off with a few whispered words of advice and a promise to see her again soon.

They went the opposite direction, as far from Shara's entry point as they possibly could. BB-8 went on a little further, ready with a speaker designed to help confuse anyone trying to pinpoint their specific location. Rose had offered to come with them to act as another guard, but they'd both decided that they'd be more successful focusing on speed and stealth rather than gunfire.

Also, that would put Rose with the main unit, which might let her get to Shara faster than they could.

When they were in position, the shimmer of the barrier within view and the amplifier droids hovering next to them, Finn let out a breath. "How do I convince these people that they can have a real life?" he breathed.

Poe squeezed his hand. "Just tell them what you would have wanted someone to tell you. The rest has to be up to them."

Finn nodded, then took a deep breath. Poe could see the same change come over him that always happened before he had to do anything inspirational, an extra level of light that seemed to flood his expression. Finn always said Poe was just seeing things because he loved him, and that if anything /was happening it was just the Force trying to do its thing.

Poe knew the Force could do a lot, but he also knew that the light was all Finn. Poe could lead men in battle, but he was really just a pilot who'd gotten promoted a few too many times. Finn, on the other hand, was a born leader the same way Leia had been. He was meant to give people hope.

And Poe was meant to help him, however he could.

Right now, that meant keeping his eyes open and blaster at the ready as Finn started to speak. "My name is Finn Dameron." The amplification droids spread, making his voice even louder. "But you will know me best as FN-2187."

They could hear the base start to stir, the sound of their biggest cannons trying to find a target. They hadn't figured out yet that they were in the blind spot.

While all this happened, Finn kept talking.

"Since the time I was a cadet, I was told that my life belonged to the First Order. I had no meaning or purpose beyond increasing the glory of the First Order. But at night in those cold, hard bunks, I would read smuggled comics and try to imagine what it would feel like to hold someone's hand."

A few troopers emerged from the base, clearly searching the trees. Their guns weren't at the ready, but Poe made sure his was just in case.

Finn's voice got stronger, more persuasive. "Now, I hold the hands of the people I love every day. I have a name, given to me by someone I love. I read whatever I want to in front of everybody. I laugh openly, I cry openly, and I help anyone who needs it without fear of repercussions."

In his head, Poe tried to picture where Shara might be on her route. He tried hard not to picture everything that could have possibly gone wrong.

Outside, an officer ran out, shouting at the troopers to fire. They ignored him, so he reached for a blaster. The trooper nearest to him was faster, aiming his own blaster at the officer.

Poe motioned for them to shift position. Finn followed, the words still flowing out of him. "I'm not the only one! I have /personally met dozens and dozens of stormtroopers who stepped away from the First Order because they wanted more out of life. If you help us now, the Resistance will welcome you with open arms. You won't have to hide your real selves anymore!"

From inside the base came the sounds of blaster fire.

"Your life belongs to you!"

Before he'd finished the last word, the shimmer disappeared. Everything erupted in blaster fire.

Sending up a silent prayer of gratitude that Shara had made it that far, Poe and Finn surged forward along with the rest of the rebels.


	11. Chapter 11

Finn had sent a careful strand of the Force through his speech, focusing less on being persuasive than on simply being believed. He didn't want to mind control them with the Force – they'd already had enough choices taken out of their hands – but he wanted so desperately for them to realize the truth when they heard it. If there was anyone who _could_ be saved in there, he wanted to save them.

There was one person, though, he wanted to save most of all. Finn was sure he would have felt it if Shara died, the same way he had with Rey, but given how tense and she, he, and everyone else he cared about felt he wasn't sure if he'd be able to pick up more than that. The Force was equally useless at finding her location, since using it would require an inner stillness it would have taken far too much time to achieve. That time was better used running to her, guided by the tracker readout in Poe's hand and the fact that BB-8 had already charged ahead.

The base was in chaos. Stormtroopers were firing at each other, though you could inevitably tell the enemy by the officers hiding behind them. Resistance fighters seemed to be pouring in from all directions, many of them hesitating as they tried to figure out which stormtroopers they should shoot. The smart ones read the situation before firing – they'd all been briefed about the officers – and most of the rest followed their lead.

Unfortunately, not everyone felt the need to bother. One older man lifted his blaster at a group of troopers Finn _knew_ was on their side, radiating anger. Finn lunged, ready to stop him – maybe he _should_ let Rey teach him the Force grip – but before he could Poe was there shoving the gun down to fire harmlessly into the floor. " _No one_ fires unless they're aiming at you or your team," he snapped at the man, looking him square in the eye with a gaze so intense it could melt metal. "They were prisoners, same as you. You know kriffing well the armor doesn't change that."

The man wilted instantly, shame flaring in his eyes. Finn had no doubt that Poe knew the Onderonian's entire life story, probably far more of it than the man had necessarily meant to tell even with the alcohol. He was the kind of leader every soldier deserved, one who had the gift of taking every single person he was responsible for into his heart and making him feel like a brother. No soldier wanted to fail a leader like that.

(No matter how well Finn got to know Poe, no matter how frustrating he could be sometimes, Finn had never shaken that early, burning desire not to fail him. To be the kind of person he would be proud to have standing next to him.)

Poe gestured to the group of stormtroopers, saying something too low for Finn to hear, then clapped the man on the shoulder. The man nodded, straightening visibly, then hurried over to join them as another shooter. Poe's attention was immediately back on the tracking readout, and when he gestured around another corner Finn hurried to follow.

They made their way to the blinking dot as quickly as possible, adding to the gunfire when necessary. BB-8 had beaten them there, making anxious noises in a corridor that seemed alarmingly empty of 10-year-old girls. - _The tracker says we should be right on top of her_ \- they beeped. - _But I've scanned the entire corridor, and she's not hiding behind any visible panels_.-

Finn's worry faded as old memory stirred. "They put extra shielding over major energy routes to protect them from damage." His gaze lifted toward the ceiling, where the hatch had been firmly shut back up again and the ladder fully retracted. Not impossible to do from a ladder – though they started retracting pretty damn quickly once the latch had been shut – but since the fighting had probably already started...

"Shara!" He cupped his hands around his mouth, calling loudly enough to be heard over the fighting. "We made it!"

Almost immediately, there was the sound of a latch unlocking. Poe rushed over, catching the hatch as it dropped open, and Finn was already reaching for the ladder as it started to drop. Then he was reaching for Shara, who was throwing herself down the ladder so rapidly she was moving faster than it was. "Finn! Poe!" She reached for both of them as she let go of the ladder, letting herself be wrapped up in their two-person hug with the certainty of someone who knew exactly where she belonged. BB-8 circled around all of them, beeping his pleasure and delight.

When her feet touched the ground, however, she was all urgency once again. "We have to go." She grabbed both their hands, dragging them forward. "I knew Lieutenant Gage found a crashed X-wing and had people fix it up, but I didn't know they must have finished it. I heard him in the corridor saying he was going to use it to escape!"

Finn hated the tremor of fear he could hear underneath that last word. He knew all about officers he'd be terrified to let loose on the galaxy. "How long ago was it?"

"Too long!" She hurried ahead, confident they would follow. BB-8 was keeping pace next to her, shock-stick at the ready. "The landing pad isn't far away! He might already be–"

He wasn't sure why he suddenly moved as she turned the corner – he would have said The Force, but Poe was as in sync with him as if they'd planned it. Whatever the reason, they both grabbed her and yanked her back just as a blaster shot scorched the metal where she'd been. They dragged her back against the wall just as the stormtrooper who'd fired the shot came around the corner, and when he lifted his blaster at them again Poe took him out with a single quick shot. Then all four of them pressed back against the wall as blaster fire filled the corridor once again. "Everyone with piloting skills who didn't like my offer is trying to make a break for it," Finn yelled. "We need a plan b."

"Do we tell some of the other troopers?" Shara asked, still looking worried. "See if they can find him?"

A spark lit in Poe's eyes. "Actually, I have a better idea." He turned to Shara. "Can you lead us to the base's anti-aircraft artillery, or would it be easier let BB-8 do it?"

Finn could see the same spark in Shara's eyes that he could feel in his own chest. "I can show you!" She darted forward in the opposite direction, this time carefully eyeing the corridor in front of her first. "Come on!"

They made their way to the artillery control room, with BB-8 making short work of the lock. It was completely empty, since the big cannons were useless in the face of the base's current "attack," but old training rose up as if it had been waiting all this time. Normally an entire team ran one of these, and Finn had never actually fired one of these cannons himself.

The thing was, though, Phasma had been grooming him for a leadership position. The one thing they'd agreed on – though their reasoning was quite different – was that a good leader knew all the jobs of his subordinates. It was one of the reasons he'd been able to pick up on the TIE fighter's weapons system so easily.

Poe met his eyes, expression suggesting he could read his mind even without the Force. "Can't be much harder than a TIE fighter," he said, smiling a little.

It snapped him into action, memories of the distant past fading under their old familiar rhythm. "Shows what you know, Mr. 'I can fly anything but not without crashing." He let his hands move in the correct rhythms, Shara jumping in to fill in the steps she knew.

When the viewscreen came up, she pointed to a single dot arcing through the sky. "That's him! That's Lieutenant Gage!"

The Force inside him hummed in agreement, but Finn still looked over to meet Poe's eyes. The other man nodded. "Trajectory looks right."

It took barely a moment to aim and fire, two quick bursts. They hit true, the small icon flaring out and dying as they watched.

Shara immediately threw her arms around his waist. "Thank you," she whispered.

Over her head, he and Poe shared another look. They'd hunt down the exact location of the wreckage and make sure Gage actually went down with the ship, because there was no way they could leave him alive to potentially hurt–

Before he could finish the thought, stormtroopers burst through the door.


	12. Chapter 12

Between one heartbeat and the next, Poe and Finn had their blasters up and aimed. By the next heartbeat, though, it was clear it wasn’t needed.

The front stormtrooper ripped off his helmet, revealing the face Poe had seen in BB-8’s holo-projector. Scans stared at Finn wide-eyed as everyone. “Did you get him?” he asked, caught somewhere between hope and desperation. “Did you get the sleemo?”

Finn nodded. “We need to check the wreckage, though." The words radiated quiet command, though Poe suspected he didn't even realize it. "Just to make sure he didn’t survive.”

Several of the troopers at the back immediately peeled away, jumping to follow the order Finn probably didn't even know he'd given. The ones that stayed behind immediately started ripping off their helmets, a gesture that Poe was starting to realize was a universal stormtrooper sign of "we're friends now." “It’s you,” one woman said, staring at Finn the way brand-new Resistance recruits used to stare at Leia. “You’re FN-2187.”

“Everyone said you’d died,” said another man, just as wide-eyed as everyone else. They started to move closer, like they were thinking about touching him just to see if he was real. “But you’re here. You’re part of the Resistance.”

Finn was starting to look a little overwhelmed by the adoration, enough that Poe decided he was probably going to have to start playing bodyguard again for an entirely different reason. He moved forward a little, ready to start playing crowd control, but Shara beat him to it. “Yes, he is,” she announced, letting go of Finn to stand in front of him. “But his name is Finn now, like he told everyone outside. Poe gave him both of his names, and he really likes them."

Just like that, the troopers briefly forgot Finn was even in the room. Scans’ gaze immediately snapped to Shara, the awe shifting to a surprisingly fragile look. “SR-0456,” he breathed. “You’re the one who shut down the barrier, aren’t you?”

She nodded. “I wanted to help.” Her expression was gentle as she reached out to grab both Finn and Poe’s hands. “But I’m not SR-0456 anymore. I’m Shara now.” She looked up at each of them for a long moment, then back to Scans with a sort of newly minted bravery that made his heart hurt. “Shara Dameron.”

Poe’s throat closed up. Kriff, he had a daughter now. He was a _dad_.

His hand tightened on Shara’s, probably enough to hurt, but she just smiled up at him like she knew exactly what he meant. Finn, thankfully, responded like a normal person capable of speech. “She was safe with my fiancé the whole time,” he explained to Scans quietly. “I’m sorry I wasn’t willing to trust you with that information.”

Scans shook his head. “Even if you could be sure I didn’t mean her harm, there was no telling some Sith scum couldn’t have ripped the information out of my head.” Then he nodded, almost to himself. “Any trooper knows you have to keep the important things secret.”

Finn gave him the same small nod in return, the weight of some deeper understanding passing between them. “Exactly.”

Finally, Poe cleared his throat and decided he could risk talking. “So, now that we’ve got that settled, should we maybe see if everyone else has finished shooting?”

000

It took a few more days to get everything settled completely. The good (former) troopers cleaned out their own ranks pretty thoroughly, but he, Finn and the rest of the Resistance members who'd gone planetside had plenty to do overseeing the talks between the former troopers and the Onderian rebels. Thankfully, the very dead Lieutenant Gage had proven to be a great bonding experience for both sides.

When they finally left the planet behind and rejoined the rest of the Resistance on the cruiser, there was a massive party welcoming Shara into the family. Shara went wide-eyed again, staying close to him, Finn, or BB-8 throughout the whole thing, but she also radiated the kind of quiet joy that left Poe feeling teary more than once. Later, they returned to their quarters and introduced Shara to her Aunt Rey via holo call. Rey was suitably enchanted by her new niece, though she yelled at them both for waiting until _just_ after she'd left, and promised to circle back as quickly as she could so they could spend some time together.

The one family member Shara didn't meet was Poe's dad. Kes Dameron still didn’t have the technology to accept holo calls – he always said it was the only way he could guilt Poe into seeing him occasionally – and this wasn’t the kind of news you could just throw into a message. So Poe quietly arranged a visit, telling his dad that he and Finn had just gotten off a long-term mission and wanted to a few days of peace and quiet.

On the flight there, Shara was hit with an unexpected bout of nerves. “Do you think he’ll like me?” she asked for the hundredth time, sitting on Finn’s lap in the shuttle’s co-pilot seat. “I’ve never been someone’s granddaughter. What if I don’t know how to do it properly?”

“My dad’s never been a grandfather, either, so you’ll both learn together.” Poe’s chest tightened, thinking about the crash course in fatherhood he and Finn were going through.

Finn smiled. “Besides, Poe and I are first-time dads,” he said, reading Poe’s mind either through the Force or just because it was him. “We don’t know what we’re doing, either.”

“You’re doing an amazing job,” Shara said fiercely, reaching out to Poe so she could squeeze his arm the same time she did Finn’s. “Both of you.” She took a deep breath. “And you’ll still take me flying in your mom’s A-wing, right? Going out with you in the X-wing was amazing, but I also want to fly in the same ship your mom took you up in as a kid.” She smiled suddenly. “I’ll get to tell my kids that dad took me flying in both his ship _and_ Grandma’s.”

Poe’s throat tightened. Kriff it, he was going to start crying before they even made it planetside. “First thing on my to-do list.”

When they landed, Poe’s dad was waiting for them. “This mission must have been far more dangerous than you made it sound.” Kes Dameron gave his son a loving-but-slightly-suspicious look the minute he stepped foot out of the shuttle. “Neither you or your husband-to-be do vacations unless you come _very_ close to death.”

Poe grinned, even though his eyes were wet. “Actually, this time we made an exception.” He turned back to the shuttle as Finn stepped out, Shara tightly holding his hand. Poe gestured towards them. “The family grew a little since you saw us last.”

Shara gave him a little wave. “I used to be a stormtrooper, like Dad.” She stopped. “When I say Dad, I mean Finn. Poe said I could call him Pop.” Her expression turned hesitant. “What do you want me to call you?”

Poe turned back to his dad in time to see the older man swipe a hand across his wet eyes. His expression shone brighter than the sun, love so tangible Poe could practically feel it on his skin. “I’m your Grandpa. I’ll love whatever you want to call me.” He smiled. “What should I call you, mija?”

Now it was Shara’s turn to beam. “My name is Shara Dameron. Pop’s the one who gave it to me.” She turned bashful. “He said it was his mom’s name.”

His dad’s eyes filled at that, and he shot Poe a look of such absolute approval that Poe lost his own battle with tears. “Your grandma would be so proud to know that someone as special as you are was carrying on her name.” He got down on one knee, arms held out. “Welcome to the family, mija.”

Shara let go of Finn, running over to throw herself into her grandpa’s arms. Finn, hand now free and eyes more than a little teary, moved over to squeeze Poe’s hand. “Don’t worry about the holos,” he said softly. “Rose lent me her wrist device, and I’m getting plenty of them.”

Poe wiped his eyes. “We’re going to be those parents who bombard everyone with holos of their kids, aren’t we?”

Finn grinned. “Oh, _absolutely._ ” 

**Author's Note:**

> Come check out my [original fiction,](https://jennifferwardell.wixsite.com/mybooks) my [blog,](http://jennifferwardell.blogspot.com) or say hi to me on [Tumblr](http://sanctuaryforalluniverses.tumblr.com)!


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